Fuelling for Back-to-Back Long Runs
A weekend of vert needs a plan that starts the night before, not at the start line on Saturday morning.
Back-to-back long runs are less about Saturday's run and more about what you do between Saturday afternoon and Sunday's start line — most people get this exactly backwards.
The biggest lever is unglamorous: eating enough in the two hours after Saturday's run, before appetite naturally drops off. A delayed refuel is the single best predictor of a flat Sunday.
Carry real food on the second run, not just gels. By kilometre 25 of back-to-back days, plain carbohydrate stops being appealing and you need something with actual flavour to keep eating on schedule.
Sleep is the other half of the equation we can't fix with nutrition. If the choice is an extra hour of sleep or a perfect dinner, take the sleep.
